Saskatoon council approves proposed office building in Nutana

After hours of arguments, Saskatoon city council has cleared the way for a new eight-storey office building just off Broadway Avenue.

"I think saying no will not necessarily get us closer to the overall objectives that we're looking for," Mayor Charlie Clark said after coming to his decision to support the proposal.

Last Thursday, council approved the rezoning of a section of Nutana to allow construction of the proposed building at 509 12th Street, which has remained vacant since homes were levelled at the site in 1988.

Located just behind the Broadway Roastery, the site is currently a community garden.

The proposed development by Modus Ventures Corporation would have retail spaces on the main floor and commercial and office space on floors five through eight. An indoor parking facility with roughly 100 spots would occupy the floors in between.

Modus president Devin Stus says the site was picked by a Saskatchewan company looking to build its global headquarters.

"We looked long and hard at the sites downtown and none of them fulfilled their objective, and that was why we landed on the site in particular," Stus said. "Our original preference was to build or find a location on a site or a piece of land that would be buildable right out of the gates, but they were the ones who picked the site."

Council mulled over the decision for nearly four hours as residents and various stakeholders spoke in favour and against the project. In an unusual circumstance, the Broadway Business Improvement District and the Downtown Saskatoon Business Improvement District gave two opposite opinions of the site.

"I can't remember a time when we've had two different business improvement districts come with different messages to council because of the dynamics," Clark said.

The crux of the argument was rezoning the area from high density residential to special area commercial. The original plan from 1988 was to build three buildings on the block -- an office tower between two residential towers. In 1995, the two condominiums were built, but the vacant lot in between was sold by the original developer.

After the sale, the city realized a portion of the underground parkade and an outdoor pool intended for shared use encroached into the vacant lot by "several metres," which has hampered developing the site for decades.

"Broadway as a whole, if you currently zoned it, it could not exist. It's an anomaly," said DeeAnn Mercier, the executive director of the Broadway BID. "That's part of the reason why it works so well."

"This site has been vacant for my entire lifetime."

Councillors mulled over the idea of adding office space along Broadway when their intention is to add more office space in the downtown core.

"Is residential Nutana a place you want to become more commercial?" said Brent Penner, the executive director of the Downtown BID.

"There are countless examples of offices being built in areas of the city that I think many of us would question ‘is that the right spot for them?’"

Ultimately, council unanimously approved rezoning for the development.

If Modus continues with the project, planning and design would take at least six months and permits could be requested at some point in 2024. Construction would take roughly 18 months.